Earlier this year I invested in Disneyland passes. We had received some money for Christmas and used that towards the down payment and after that there is just a monthly fee of $10 per pass (well, I ay an extra $5/mo for mine so I can sometimes go on Sundays with grownups). These cheaper passes have certain days blocked out, but those are the busy days and we don’t want to go then, anyway. It makes Disneyland affordable. I shared the idea with Claire who decided it was brilliant (duh) so we’ve been three times this year so far (I mean together, as families).

That most recent trip to Disneyland was awesome. Largely because the girl child has been working so hard on her awesomeness, but also because she twisted her ankle a couple of days prior and after a lot of thought and consideration and false feeling-betters from said ankle, we decided to go anyway. And the ankle started complaining so we wound up renting a wheelchair. And you know what? Wheelchair trumps FastPass. Like totally.

We enjoyed the lack of waiting in lines for lots of rides that day, but we really got to enjoy the benefit in Fantasyland. Fantasyland is made up of a bunch of really great rides that everyone loves so much they are willing to wait in lines for 45-90 minutes. I’ve never waited less than 30 minutes for Peter Pan and once my family waited almost two hours for Dumbo. On a Monday in the winter. But with a wheelchair we only waited in one line (10 minutes for Peter Pan, if you’re counting). The kids got to experience all sorts of rides we don’t usually make time for. Elliott declared them all “awesome”.

I had some reservations at first about renting a wheelchair for a simple twisted ankle. I mean there are people out there with, like, actual disabilities, who are on, like, actual vacations. But once we got the chair it was so obviously the right choice. Margie was able to enjoy the day without any discomfort and we were able to enjoy the day without any whining (well, not on that topic, anyway)

So, not that I advocate child abuse or anything, but if you ever go to Disneyland I highly recommend making sure someone in your party has an injury just serious enough to make your day awesomer. Because lines are dumb.

During the winter Margie was going through a really difficult time. The kind where you wonder why you wanted to be a parent again and how long until you’re done? And with Margie, because she is such an extremely passionate and emotional being, it was a pretty dark period for me as a mother. We’ve been visiting Disneyland a lot lately, often with Claire’s family. The first two times we went with them were difficult. Actually the second time made me pretty much swear off Disneyland with Margie ever again. It was awful.

But that night, on the way home, she and I had a really amazing talk. She was able to name the things that had led her to have a bad day, she was able to communicate those with me, and she was able to come up with some ideas of how we can handle it in the future. Furthermore, she’s put those ideas into effect since that day and has been working her ass off to handle her emotions in an acceptable way. On numerous occasions I’ve seen her heading down the dark path only to stop and turn around and handle whatever it was in a way that is not only better, but also better than many adults I’ve known.

I’ve noticed that she has certain ages that are harder than others. And then ages that reflect her growth into an awesome person. At six she gained a new level of ability to reason which was pretty awesome. She was able to understand consequences better than before. But seven was tough. Eight was pretty awesome. She was into reading and making friendship bracelets and working out issues with us. Nine was even tougher than seven. So far? We like ten.

It’s one of those times that makes me know why I wanted to be a mom and marvel at how lucky I am to be working with these amazing little people and helping them find the path to adulthood. A few months ago, I was too weary to go on, now I’m so excited to see what’s around the corner.

It’s funny how sometimes I’ll start feeling as though my kids have already gotten older months before their birthdays. I kept being surprised that he was only turning seven because he’s felt seven for months now. In fact, I’ve been told by more than one of his teachers that he’s really gotten mature this year. He handles conflict, listening, and following directions much better than he did a few months ago. His sense of humor is becoming even more refined, he’s riding his bike all by himself (with training wheels), he’s speaking clearer all the time, he’s loving and extremely cuddly, and he loves Legos. So we went to Legoland for his birthday.

So anyway, there was this thing yesterday about a solar eclipse. I’d heard about it weeks ago, but the Scientists were all, “Northern California, stupid. Not San Diego.” So I, like, didn’t plan my weekend around it.

Looking back what I assume they meant was, “Don’t worry, San Diego, the sky won’t turn scarily black signaling the end of the world, but you can still totally see the eclipse from where you’re at. Only DON’T LOOK AT IT or you’ll go all blind n shit.”

Because after an intense 4-hour Doctor Who Marathon, I opened up Facebook and saw all the San Diegans posting about the solar eclipse. So I grabbed the camera and ran outside and snapped this, magically without blinding myself.

Just to be clear – the camera makes it look far more end-of-the-worldy than it actually was. The light outside was slightly strange, maybe a tint of orange, but not so different that you’d huddle indoors taking notes on that John Cusack documentary with the arks and the 2012 and all.

The moral of the story is that Facebook is always more reliable than Scientits.

UPDATE: I’m not drinking, but I feel like this was written by a drunk person.